World Cup 2010 Blog: “Africa Cup of Nations 2010: Everything You Need to Know About the Group Stage Finale” plus 1 more

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Africa Cup of Nations 2010: Everything You Need to Know About the Group Stage Finale Posted: 18 Jan 2010 06:07 AM PST We’re reaching the finale of the group stages at the 2010 Africa(n) Cup of Nations. Between now and January 21st, the top two from each group will be decided. Eight teams will go through to the quarters, and the other eight seven will go home. Below you’ll find all four groups as they stand before the final round of games, complete with a (mostly accurate) explanation of who needs what to happen in their final games. If you’re looking for a way to watch the knockout stage online in the USA – 100% legally and reliably – then we recommend purchasing a knockout stage pass from MyAfricanFootball.com. You can also purchase games individually. First tie-breaker is head to head, second is goal difference, third is goals scored. All group games are simultaneous kickoffs at 5pm Angolan time (that’s 4pm UK time, 11am US eastern time) Group A It’s all a bit tight in Africa Cup of Nations Group A. Angola have a slight advantage with four points, Malawi and Algeria are level on three points (but Malawi have the head to head advantage after that 3-0 win) and Mali – who started inspirationally with that incredible 4-4 comeback – are bottom with one point, and so need a win and a bit of luck. Remaining Group A games Jan 18th, Angola vs Algeria, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Jan 18th, Mali vs Malawi, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Who Needs What: Angola qualify provided they don’t lose to Algeria. If they do lose, Angola still qualify if Mali vs Malawi ends in a draw. Malawi qualify if they beat Mali, or if they draw and Algeria fail to win. Algeria need to beat Angola, or if they draw then they need Mali to beat Malawi. Mali need to beat Malawi and hope Angola beat Algeria. If Algeria beat Angola then it’s calculator time for Mali fans. Team Blogs: Angola, Malawi, Algeria Group B Africa Cup of Nations Group B is an odd looking three-legged animal due to Togo’s withdrawal. Cote d’Ivoire (or Ivory Coast if you want to defy the Cd’I government’s wishes) are through already with a win and a draw and no more games to play. So it’s all about pointless Ghana (who are now without Michael Essien) vs Burkina Faso and their single point. Remaining Mathces: Jan 19th, Burkina Faso vs Ghana, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Who Needs What: Ghana need to beat Burkina Faso to go through. Simple as that. Burkina Faso will go through in second place if they draw, and can takes first place if they win by three clear goals. Team Blogs: Ghana, Ivory Coast Group C Egypt already have Africa Nations Cup Group C first place in the bag, with six points plus head to head advantage over Nigeria. The Super Eagles lead the race for second place with three points, Benin and Mozambique prop up the table with a point each. If both Benin and Mozambique somehow win, then it will be all about goal difference. Remaining Matches: Jan 20th, Egypt vs Benin, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Jan 20th, Nigeria vs Mozambique, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Who Needs What: Egypt have already won the group and could possibly give the reserves a run out against Benin. Nigeria will take second if they either draw with or beat Mozambique. Benin need to beat Egypt and hope Mozambique beat Nigeria. But the Benin margin of victory needs to be higher than the Mozambique margin of victory. Otherwise, calculators. Mozambique need to beat Nigeria, and hope Benin don’t beat Egypt. Otherwise Mozambique will have to score a few more and make up the goal difference to leapfrog Benin. Team Blogs: Egypt, Nigeria, Benin Group D No one expected Gabon to be top of Africa Cup of Nations Group D. But there they are above Cameroon and Tunisia with four points and just one game to go, a game against arguably the weakest team in the group. Cameroon are second with three points, Tunisia third with two points, Zambia down in fourth with just the one. So we’re all set for an exciting finale. Remaining Matches: Jan 21st, Cameroon vs Tunisia, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Jan 21st, Gabon vs Zambia, 5pm (4pm UK time, 11am US eastern) Who Needs What: Gabon need to either beat or draw with Zambia to qualify. They can technically lose 4-3 and get away with it, provided other results go their way. But best not to risk that. Cameroon need to beat Tunisia to make sure. If they draw then they’ll be relying on other results. Tunisia need to beat Cameroon. Zambia need to beat Gabon. Team Blogs: Gabon, Cameroon, Tunisia If you’re in North America, then the only legal and reliable way to watch the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations online is with MyAfricanFootball.com Cup of Nations info: Matches & Groups Squads Africa on the World Cup Blog

How Not to Deal With Crosses, by Zambia Goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene Posted: 18 Jan 2010 03:57 AM PST Cameroon were 1-0 down to Zambia last night, and genuinely in danger of an early Africa Cup of Nations 2010 exit. Until. In the 68th minute, Geremi (who plays for either Newcastle or Ankaragücü, depending on who you ask) sprinted to prevent the ball going out for a throw and swung a hopeful ball in the general direction of the penalty area. Not a great cross. Not even a good one. But Geremi found his name on the scoresheet after Zambia keeper Kennedy Mweene temporarily forgot how to catch a football. I say temporarily because there is absolutely no way Mweene is that bad on a regular basis. Not unless his 2009 South Africa PSL Goalkeeper of the Year Award was some sort of cruel joke. Cameroon went on to win an exciting game 3-2 with Mohammadou Idrissou heading home an 86th minute winer to keep their Angola 2010 hopes very much alive. Shane has a blow by blow review of the game at Cameroon World Cup Blog.

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'Here we come:' Ryan's Jets, Vikings set championship matchups

MAMUDU, Your January 18, 2010 issue of Sporting News Today is now available, please click here. Here are some articles in Today's Issue Iyer: Five reasons to look forward to the championship games Brown: Favre has momentum, supporting cast on his side I just need to protect it: Romo's turnovers help sink Cowboys McNeal: Like it or not, McGwire is moving on after admission DeCourcy: Longhorns learn to look out for No. 1 If you experience any problems with your issue, please click here to contact our customer service department. Know a friend who might like Sporting News Today? Email him/her this link: www.sportingnewstoday.com.     Trouble Viewing? If any of the above links do not work for you,   copy and paste this URL into your browser:   http://today.sportingnews.com/t=c/?1&119813&155768&18487&0000&1236489503&EIInjEOx9cS45     Please do not reply to this message. Questions may be submitted to Digital Support.   To stop receiving email notifications for digital issues of Sporting News Today,   click here.   Sporting News Today 120 West Morehead Street Suite 200 Charlotte, NC 28202

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Could Uncertainty Be an Alternative to Video Replays?” plus 1 more

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Could Uncertainty Be an Alternative to Video Replays? Posted: 16 Jan 2010 04:20 PM PST I’ve been watching a couple of matches of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico recently. It’s one of the things you do as a Bundesliga fan in January. It was also one of the things I always wanted to do, given the reputation of the tournament, the players involved and the fact that it took place long before my time. There was no fuzzy warm romanticized childhood or teenage memory I could ruin by revisiting it. Inevitably I took note of the little differences between the football of the early seventies and today. Bare knuckle goalkeeping, “flying” substitutions and photographers sitting around the pitch and getting hit by footballs. Yet, what really challenged my football viewing habits were the offside calls. We are all used to having each offside call analyzed and validated with the help of countless camera angles, lines painted onto the TV pictures and sometimes the scene is even reconstructed in 3D. But the games of the 1970 World Cup were filmed with, what appeared to be, only four cameras: one behind each goal, one at the halfway line and one for close ups. With this setup it’s impossible to review most offside calls and in turn it’s simply not done. The video above is a random example from the quarter-final between England and Germany. Nothing that would pop up in any highlight videos or documentaries about the match. The referee blows for offside against the English player, Germany gets the ball and the match simply resumes without any revealing replay. There’s no way we can ever tell whether the English player really was offside or not. And because we can’t tell, there’s no scandal and no controversy either. We just have to live with not knowing for sure. Given how overly nit-picky todays TV stations are to prove that a player’s left ear was offside and that a goal shouldn’t have stood, this was both an odd but also welcomed experience. Fouls can usually be judged better, even with fewer cameras, but there are also fouls happening at uncovered angles, and often fouls weren’t worthy of a replay either in those matches. Given how hostile FIFA reacts to modernity and video replay technology, I began to wonder whether taking the opposite turn could be an option – voluntarily roll back and reduce the coverage of those potentially wrong calls instead? It has actually been done in another sport – in a way. Another thing a Bundesliga fan can do during January is spent his or her Saturdays watching obscure winter sports like ski jumping instead of football. A sport most popular in the Alpine and Eastern European countries and Scandinavia. The goal is to “go down an inrun with a take-off ramp (the jump), attempting to fly as far as possible” to quote from Wikipedia. Many factors play a role in how far an athlete can fly and one he can’t influence are the winds blowing around the hill, which can have a big influence on the outcome of a jump. For a long time the TV audience was presented with a real time display of the current wind conditions. Being constantly informed about the conditions under which each athlete had to jump in turn caused frequent discussions and controversies about the “just” outcome of a competition. It drove the attention away from the fundamentals of the jump, i.e. the factors the athlete could influence. Ski jumping is not a sport I follow frequently, so I don’t know when this practice was changed, but nowadays the TV viewer is no longer presented with the wind conditions. The commenters still have access to them, but usually only make vague references unless there are dramatic changes during a competition. I’m not sure whether this was the intention or not, but this small adjustment to the amount of information presented to the viewer, greatly helped to refocus the attention on the athlete and not the wind. Something similar could be done in football. Of course, it’s also a valid point to insist that uncertainty belongs to quantum physics and not football. And after all, the skiing federation is working on a way to factor in the wind conditions into the points total for a jump to improve the quality of the results. But since FIFA has little interest in improving the quality of the results of a football match, we might just as well be better off not knowing everything.

Climbing Through Windows to Try to Get Training Time, OR: Who’s Running this Tournament, Anyway? Posted: 16 Jan 2010 07:00 AM PST When you’re good enough to ply your trade in Europe and play international football, you’ve got an easy life, right? Ask Malian captain and Real Madrid player Mahamadou Diarra (pictured.) Diarra’s life was so glamourous yesterday, in fact, that he and his team were reduced to begging security staff to allow them onto the pitch for their scheduled training time. And, when that didn’t work, they found themselves trying to climb through windows. And when that didn’t work, they just headed back to their hotel, having not trained for their must-win match against Malawi on Monday. The reason? Even though it was Mali’s scheduled practice time, the Algerian team was on the pitch. And they were allowed to stay there because… Well, y’know, first come, first serve. Who’s to blame? The officials say it’s fellow Group A members Algeria: Later, the local Africa Cup of Nations organising committee (LOC) told AFP that Algeria had been at fault, and not them. LOC media officer Virgilio Santos explained: “This mix-up had nothing to do with us. What happened was this: Mali were supposed to travel to Cabinda today, but delayed their trip until Saturday. “Algeria were supposed to train at the stadium until 1700, but when they saw the Mali team turn up they decided to make life difficult for Mali and they didn’t leave the pitch until 1815, which made Mali angry.” It’s hard to tell if this is true, particularly since this is the not the first time this has happened, and for a Group A team, too. Malawi had two days before their loss to Angola when they were unable to train because the pitch they were scheduled to be on was in use. Yes, twice. Does kind of make you go Hmmm, yeah? Especially since the host country are in the group? I’m not sayin’, y’know? I’m just sayin’: Helluva way to run a major international tournament. This is even more important because Group A is still very much up for grabs, as you can see in the table (which I cheerfully swiped from our Malawi blog): If Algeria was at fault, it’s hard to see what they would stand to gain from this little bit of gamesmanship. If I’m reading the tiebreak table correctly (tiebreak criteria shown at the bottom), if they beat Angola, they go through regardless. If they lose and either Malawi or Mali win, they’re going home. If Algeria and Angola draw and Mali wins, the first tiebreak is head-to-head, so Algeria goes through because they beat Mali. And if both games end in draws, Malawi goes through because they beat Algeria 3-0. So Algeria may have actually hurt their chances by helping a team that could send them home. If the responsible party was Algeria. Like I said. Hmmm. Tie-breaking criteria If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:[7] 1. points earned in the matches between the teams concerned; 2. goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned; 3. number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned; 4. goal difference in all group matches; 5. number of goals scored in all group matches; 6. fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards; 7. drawing of lots by the organising committee.

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Saints, Colts dominate to reach conference championship games

MAMUDU, Your January 17, 2010 issue of Sporting News Today is now available, please click here. Here are some articles in Today's Issue Dillon: Manning shows why he's the four-time MVP Saints overwhelm Cardinals 45-14, reach NFC Championship game Iyer: Reggie Bush has never looked better In photos: Bama celebrates BCS title with fans DeCourcy: Eventually, Texas will have to get the point If you experience any problems with your issue, please click here to contact our customer service department. Know a friend who might like Sporting News Today? Email him/her this link: www.sportingnewstoday.com.     Trouble Viewing? If any of the above links do not work for you,   copy and paste this URL into your browser:   http://today.sportingnews.com/t=c/?1&119790&155770&18481&0000&1236489491&EIInjEOx9cS45     Please do not reply to this message. Questions may be submitted to Digital Support.   To stop receiving email notifications for digital issues of Sporting News Today,   click here.   Sporting News Today 120 West Morehead Street Suite 200 Charlotte, NC 28202